Pages

Monday, September 12, 2011

Taleth the Ranger led our adventuring party towards the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl through the deep snows of the Pillars of Defiance mountain range at the southern end of the Anvil. It was easy for him to locate the way to the rift due to the many frost giant tracks left on the trail in the snow by the giants and other creatures moving to and from it with regularity. When we arrived at the entrance it was really just a break in the snow capped peaks with a path leading to the left and a path leading to the right and a steep drop off down to the floor of the rift far below straight ahead which was obscured by wind driven snowy mists. So we debated which way to go and went with the conventional wisdom that when confronted with such choices in a maze like labyrinth, that right is right and left is wrong. So we went down the right hand path which was really just an icy ledge up against the sheer mountain and glacier wall on the right with the steep drop off to the rift floor on the left. Since it was so slippery, we took the added precaution of roping ourselves together in the hopes that if someone fell over the edge that we could catch them and pull them back to the ledge with the ropes.

As we went further along the path, we eventually came to a cave mouth on the right and decided to explore it. We untied the ropes and entered the cave and were surprised by a band of six Yetis! A fierce melee ensued and several of our number were paralyzed with fear from the giant white ape like creatures including Lucias. As we started cutting them down, another one attacked us from behind that was bigger than the rest and was wielding a glowing white sword. After a brief but intense battle we eventually overcame all seven yetis and searched their lair. In addition to the obviously magical sword, we found eleven huge ivory mammoth tusks hidden away in their cave which were worth a great deal of gold. We pressed on and retied ourselves together to brave the icy ledge once again and again found another ice cave on the right face of the glacier and mountain.

We entered this cave and found that it was filled with an icy mist mixed with steam that issued forth from a thermal fissure somewhere deep below the ground making it very hard to see. It also made the floor very treacherous and slippery and we all had to fight to maintain our balance to keep from slipping and dropping our weapons and shields. Unfortunately, Kaira slipped onto the icy floor and dropped her magical spear which tumbled across the slippery surface and into an icy chasm never to be seen again. We decided to leave this room before we lost anything else and went back out onto the icy ledge where we roped up again and gave the newly found magical sword to Kaira to replace her lost weapon. As we continued our march along the treacherous ledge, one of the adventurers slipped on the icy surface and nearly tumbled over the ledge to their death on the rift floor far below. Fortunately, the rope saved that character’s life and he was quickly hoisted back up to the ledge by the rest of the group.

We continued along the ledge and noticed that there was what appeared to be a path/ledge leading down to the rift floor on our left in addition to the ledge that continued on straight ahead. There was also another ice cave on our right that we decided to investigate. As we entered the cave we were surprised by a pair of snow leopards that attacked us from their perch on a ledge above the room. A quick but fierce melee ensued and the ice cats were quickly dispatched. After this encounter, we decided to try the path to the left that led to the rift floor in the hopes of finding the entrance to the Frost Giant Jarl’s lair so we could retrieve the tome for the Surgeons of Hecate. We went down the winding trail and eventually ended up on the rift floor below. On the rift floor, vision was obscured and limited to 30’ due to the high winds and snow drifts that prevailed there on the snow and ice covered valley floor.

As we started forward we ran into what looked like a pack of seven white wolves. We moved to engage them and then they breathed frost on us! This caught us completely off guard since we thought they were just normal wolves. They turned out to be Winter Wolves and hurt us badly since all seven of them had an icy breath weapon and most of the characters failed their saving throws. During the second round of combat they breathed on us again and several of the lower level characters were nearly killed so we were forced to withdraw back up the icy ledge. We threw some of our rations down to distract them as we made our getaway. Had we realized how dangerous they were, we would have hit them with ranged attacks including fireballs but as it was, we were lucky to escape that encounter without any fatalities. We eventually made it back to the safety of our ice cave hideout far away from the rift to rest and heal up our wounded comrades. So we rested up and prepared for our next foray on the following day into the glacial rift. The odd thing was, on our first outing, we didn’t encounter a single Frost Giant. This was about to change however...

Yeah, they are even tougher in Labyrinth Lord since they can use their breath weapon every round. In the AD&D Monster Manual they did more damage (4d6 instead of 4d4) but they could only use it once every ten rounds. If we had realized how dangerous they were and fireballed them right off the bat we probably could have defeated them - as it was, we were lucky that nobody died...